"Men, I'm going to ask you two or three questions - let one of you
answer yes or no, and the rest keep silent. Now then: Have you
anything to say against your mate, Mr. Jermin?" And he looked
sharply among the sailors, and, at last, right into the eye of the
cooper, whom everybody was eyeing.
"Well, sir," faltered Bungs, "we can't say anything against Mr.
Jermin's seamanship, but - "
"I want no buts," cried the consul, breaking in: "answer me yes or
no - have you anything to say against Mr. Jermin?"
"I was going on to say, sir; Mr. Jermin's a very good man; but then - "
Here the mate looked marlinespikes at Bungs; and Bungs, after
stammering out something, looked straight down to a seam in the deck,
and stopped short.
A rather assuming fellow heretofore, the cooper had sported many
feathers in his cap; he was now showing the white one.
"So much then for that part of the business," exclaimed Wilson,
smartly; "you have nothing to say against him, I see."
Upon this, several seemed to be on the point of saying a good deal;
but disconcerted by the cooper's conduct, checked themselves, and the
consul proceeded.
"Have you enough to eat, aboard? answer me, you man who spoke
before."
"Well, I don't know as to that," said the cooper, looking excessively
uneasy, and trying to edge back, but pushed forward again. "Some of
that salt horse ain't as sweet as it might be."
"That's not what I asked you," shouted the consul, growing brave quite
fast; "answer my questions as I put them, or I'll find a way to make
you."
This was going a little too far. The ferment, into which the cooper's
poltroonery had thrown the sailors, now brooked no restraint; and one
of them - a young American who went by the name of Salem - dashed out
from among the rest, and fetching the cooper a blow that sent him
humming over toward the consul, flourished a naked sheath-knife in
the air, and burst forth with "I'm the little fellow that can answer
your questions; just put them to me once, counsellor." But the
"counsellor" had no more questions to ask just then; for at the
alarming apparition of Salem's knife, and the extraordinary effect
produced upon Bungs, he had popped his head down the companion-way,
and was holding it there.
Upon the mate's assuring him, however, that it was all over, he looked
up, quite flustered, if not frightened, but evidently determined to
put as fierce a face on the matter as practicable. Speaking sharply,
he warned all present to "look out"; and then repeated the question,
whether there was enough to eat aboard. Everyone now turned
spokesman; and he was assailed by a perfect hurricane of yells, in
which the oaths fell like hailstones.
